Our Working Environment
In all aspects of our office, warehouse and field based environments staff are trained and equipped to follow green working practices and to always aim to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Office Practice
Staff are encouraged to adopt sustainable working practices throughout their roles. All staff undergo Sustainability or Environmental Awareness targeted training to understand the wider impact we have on our world.
Active changes to internal procurement and increasing recycling waste streams has increased employee engagement. Alpha continues to assess current office practices to see where improvements can be made. Employees are encouraged to take accountability and manage their heating and lighting efficiently in their office areas.
In addition to paper, dry mixed recycling (Plastic, cans and tins) and general waste, we have additional waste streams for food waste, coffee pods, crisp packets, milk bottle tops, batteries and ink cartridges.
Buildings
Over the past 10 years Alpha Laboratories has undergone a phase of refurbishments to improve the sustainability of its Head Offices.
Decreasing our wasteful energy through the recladding of the building and replacement of the roof with an advanced Trisomet® trapezoidal roofing system. Along with this change, an addition of skylights make up 15% of the warehouse roof area, allowing us to utilise as much daylight as possible throughout the year and no use the electric lighting. Smaller changes, such as switching lighting to more energy efficient LEDs and sensor lighting in communal areas, further reduces our electricity consumption. Warehouse staff are equipped with heated jackets to reduce natural gas consumption within the warehouse space.
In 2023, Alpha installed solar panels and batteries to maximise the use of natural resources. This is predicted to generate 98% of our energy usage during the summer, with our batteries feeding stored energy into our freezers and fridges overnight.
See our latest solar energy update here.
Packaging and Distribution
We always want to ensure our products arrive to you in the best possible condition. We use a range of right-sized, sustainable and durable packaging materials to protect our products during shipping.
Wherever possible we reuse boxes that we have received goods in, from our suppliers, for shipments out to customers. All new boxes are made from 70% recycled cardboard. To maximise their durability the outer shell is made from stronger new material, this comes from sustainable managed sources.
We always use the minimum amount of packaging possible but when void fill is necessary, to protect your products, we use 75% recycled filler paper or bubble wrap made from 30% recycled materials. Even our tape is made of paper instead of plastic.
Frozen or cold items require special treatment to maintain their integrity. We use small amounts of bubble wrap or dry ice for these products. Insulated boxes are reused and our own solution consists of a lined cardboard container that minimises the plastic material whilst providing adequate insulation.
In 2023, Alpha invested in an E-transit Van to be used for primarily local deliveries within the Portsmouth and Southampton area. We are very excited to be offering this new service, and to have an economical way to reduce emissions whilst providing increased service levels to our local customers.
Improving Wildlife Habitats at
Alpha Laboratories HQ
Our location is one of the few areas on the business estate with green space. To maximise the impact we can achieve, we worked with guidance from the RSPB and undertook an extensive planting of rowan trees and thorn hedging to attract and protect birds and other wildlife in the Alpha garden.
Our ‘bug hotel’ made from pallets and logs will attract and support a diversity of invertebrate species, to support the local birds, boxes and feeders have been placed in the garden, and a raised bed offers pollinators a refuge within the estate.
Watch our ‘Big Dig’ video to see how we started our journey.
Alpha Laboratories Garden Projects
for Improved Wildlife Habitats
Recycling
All employees are requested to separate all recyclable waste. This is now processed by a local handling agent to minimise transportation to the recycling depot.
In addition to paper and plastic collections we have additional schemes for cans and tins, coffee pods, crisp packets, milk bottle tops, batteries and ink cartridges. Various Alpha volunteers take these to appropraite local recycling points.
Travel
We are transitioning our car fleet from fuel-based cars to a mixture of hybrid and electric vehicles.
Our current fleet releases 40.5% less carbon emissions than if we relied on their petrol counterparts. We are focused on improving this further with each vehicle replacement.
Below is a graph showing the emissions and miles driven by our fleet since 2018:
Air travel has been reduced to fulfill essential requirements only and greater use of technology is enabling more business meetings and training to occur online, with minimal environmental impact.
Marketing
The increased use of advanced digital communications means we can keep you up to date with market developments, new solutions, product innovations and special offers, through our websites, emails and social media.
Our online literature library provides a wealth of digital brochures, technical documents and case studies that can be downloaded direct to your PC or mobile device.
However, we still feel there is a place for the occasional print publications that can be reviewed offline at leisure.
So, we have taken steps to reduce the environmental footprint of our popular periodicals such as Leading Edge and LabVantage by now printing them on recycled paper and mailing them without any outer packaging.
These ‘naked’ mailings save over 100kg of plastic annually.
We offer a range of customer gifts and where possible source those made from recycled materials. We never choose single use items and provide reusable water bottles and shopping bags with their own environmental benefits. Our seeded paper promotional cards also benefit the environment as they can be planted to grow wild flowers.